(8)Knuckles the Echidna vs (9)Yuna 2003
Results Round One Saturday, July 26th, 2003 Ulti's Analysis The prediction percentage really says it all about this match. No match has ever had a prediction percentage closer to 50% than this one, and for a time, there was a good reason for the hype. Three characters from Final Fantasy X got into this contest, and though few could agree on the order of the three strength-wise, they all helped add to a massive Square hype in this contest. And this was before the contest had even began. Tidus, Squall, Auron, Crono and Ramza all impressed, while Cloud and Sephiroth were at or near their 2002 levels of power after their first matches. There was little rhyme or reason behind the Knuckles/Yuna debates other than the fact that everyone knew that both characters had a good chance to win. There weren't really any stats to go off of, and it was simply a case of being lucky enough to pick the winner. The board was literally split down the middle in just about every topic, including the big contests like the Prophet Challenge. Two characters with essentially an equal chance to win, and no past stats to make your pick off of. Isn't this when the contests are at their best? The match to see who would get their asses kicked by Snake in the second round began (and quite a number of people were annoyed that we could see yet another Snake > Knuckles affair in the second round), and Knuckles was able to slightly pull away at the start. Yuna fought to stay in the match for a few minutes, but Knuckles soon began to roll her over en route to getting his lead into the hundreds. Yuna made random stalls on Knuckles's lead at various times through the night, but she was never able to actually cut into Kncukles's lead; she simply went 50-50 with him for a time before Knuckles took off again. This culminated in Knuckles finally reaching a lead of 1000 votes, but Yuna beginning an hours-long stall with him. After it seemed like the two characters would be deadlocked until the end of the match, the day vote hit. You can all guess what happened from there, though it wasn't yet known that Knuckles was the champion of the day vote. His turning a deadlocked match into a 10000+ vote victory came as a surprise to many people, though this wouldn't be the last time that Knuckles snake-bit a Square character with that vaunted day vote of his... Yuna was one and done in Summer 2003, and Knuckles was again stuck facing Solid Snake in the second round. And while Knuckles would go on to have a good contest career and cause one of the biggest upsets of all time, it took Final Fantasy X-2 to even get Yuna back into another one of these things. Stats and Analysis Before the Match This was one of the most hotly debated match-ups heading into the contest. Strong cases could be made for both the echidna who performed respectably against Solid Snake in 2002, and the heroine from the most recent Final Fantasy. The final bracket stat was a testament to this split, with Knuckles barely eking out a win there, and the arguments for this match continued up until game day. After the Match Knuckles would take a small lead of about 1,000 votes early in the match, and both competitors would be in a stalemate throughout the wee hours of the morning. Yuna tried to cut into the lead, but Knuckles wouldn't budge. Once the daylight hit, Knuckles took off like a rocket, leaving Yuna in the dust and coasting to an easy 10,000+ vote victory. Interesting Facts * This match had the closest prediction percentage margin of any 1 on 1 match in contest history, as 50.22% sided with Knuckles and 49.78% took Yuna. * This was the second Sonic vs Final Fantasy X matchup of the contest, with Team Sonic securing a win to avenge Tails's loss to Auron. • Previous Match • Next Match Category: 2003 Contest Matches